According to Ars Technica, Apple removed the push notification functionality from the current iPhone 2.1 firmware beta. While it’s certainly true that there are more pressing matters to fix in a new release (my Mail.App crashes very frequently when sending mail via my Exchange account), this functionality is definitely needed quickly. The value of an applications like AIM is now very limited and I’d like to see those apps coming for MSN and Yahoo as well.

While it’s not the biggest issue in the world, it would be bad if Apple can’t keep its promises and misses the announced September release for this functionality.